Joint processing method and dome member

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10512985-B2
Application number	US-201515328662-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 1, 2015
Priority date	Sep 24, 2014
Publication date	Dec 24, 2019
Grant date	Dec 24, 2019

Abstract

A joint processing method includes: a friction stir welding step for forming a joint in a plate by friction stir welding a groove in the plate; a cold working step for cold working the joint under cold working conditions such that a grain size in the joint is not more than a grain size of an aluminum alloy in the groove prior to the friction stir welding step; and a solution heat treatment step for, subsequent to the cold working step, performing solution heat treatment of the plate.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A joint processing method comprising:
a friction stir welding step of forming a joint in a metal material by performing friction stir welding on a part to be welded, of the metal material;
a cold working step of performing cold working on the joint under cold working conditions such that a grain size of the joint is equal to or smaller than a grain size of metal in the part to be welded before the friction stir welding step; and
a solution heat treatment step of, subsequent to the cold working step, performing solution heat treatment of the metal material,
wherein the cold working conditions are conditions such that a strain amount of the joint given in the cold working step becomes equal to or more than 5%,
wherein the metal material in which the joint is formed in the friction stir welding step is a plate material having a plate shape,
wherein, in the cold working step, rotational cold working is performed on the plate material so as to provide a dome shape that curves from a center of the plate material toward an outside of the plate material and a dome member is formed,
wherein a strain amount such that a thickness of the plate material becomes smaller is given from the center of the plate material toward the outside of the plate material,
wherein the strain amount being defined as a ratio of the thickness of the plate material after the rotational cold working to the thickness of the plate material before the rotational cold working,
wherein the dome member comprises a first region exhibiting a strain amount of less than 5% and extending from a center of the dome member to a radial position of the dome member, and a second region exhibiting a strain amount of equal to or more than 5% and extending from the radial position of the dome member to the outside of the dome member, the strain amount at the radial position of the dome member being 5%, and
wherein the joint formed in the plate material is formed in the second region.

2. The joint processing method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an anneal heat treatment step of performing anneal heat treatment on the metal material including the joint after the friction stir welding step and before the cold working step.

3. The joint processing method according to claim 2 ,
wherein a friction stir temperature of the joint in the friction stir welding step is made higher than an annealing temperature of the joint in the anneal heat treatment step.

4. The joint processing method according to claim 1 ,
wherein, in the friction stir welding step, friction stir welding is performed from both sides in a thickness direction of the part to be welded such that a first stirring region formed on a first side in the thickness direction of the part to be welded and a second stirring region formed on a second side in the thickness direction of the part to be welded overlap each other.

5. The joint processing method according to claim 1 ,
wherein, in the friction stir welding step, a heating source that heats the part to be welded is provided opposite to a welding tool in a thickness direction of the part to be welded.

6. The joint processing method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an aging heat treatment step of performing aging heat treatment on the metal material including the joint after the solution heat treatment step.

7. The joint processing method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a strain imparting step of performing cold working on the metal material including the joint for improving a strength of the metal material, after the solution heat treatment step; and
an aging heat treatment step of performing aging heat treatment on the metal material including the joint after the strain imparting step.

8. The joint processing method according to claim 1 ,
wherein the thickness of the metal material in the joint is made to be greater than the thickness of the metal material in parts other than the joint, and
wherein, in the cold working step, cold working is performed such that the thickness of the joint becomes smaller than the thickness of the joint formed in the friction stir welding step.

9. The joint processing method according to claim 1 ,
wherein the metal material is an aluminum alloy.

10. The joint processing method according to claim 1 ,
wherein the cold working step is performed in a cold state.

11. A dome member formed in a dome shape by performing rotational cold working on a plate-shaped metal material in which a joint is formed by friction stir welding, wherein:
during the rotational cold working, the plate-shaped metal material is formed in a dome shape that curves from a center of the plate-shaped metal material toward an outside of the plate-shaped metal material while a strain amount such that a thickness of the plate-shaped metal material becomes smaller is given from a center of the dome member toward an outside of the dome member,
the dome member comprises a first region exhibiting a strain amount of less than 5% and extending from the center of the dome member to a radial position of the dome member, and a second region exhibiting a strain amount of equal to or more than 5% and extending from the radial position of the dome member to the outside of the dome member, the strain amount at the radial position of the dome member being 5% and the strain amount being defined as a ratio of the thickness of the plate-shaped metal material after the rotational cold working to the thickness of the plate-shaped metal material before the rotational cold working, and
the joint formed in the plate-shaped metal material is formed in the second region.

12. A joint processing method comprising:
a friction stir welding step of forming a joint in a metal material by performing friction stir welding on a part to be welded, of the metal material;
a cold working step of performing cold working on the joint under cold working conditions such that a grain size of the joint is equal to or smaller than a grain size of metal in the part to be welded before the friction stir welding step; and
a solution heat treatment step of, subsequent to the cold working step, performing solution heat treatment of the metal material,
wherein the cold working conditions are conditions such that a strain amount of the joint given in the cold working step becomes equal to or more than 5%,
wherein, in the friction stir welding step, friction stir welding is performed simultaneously from both sides in a thickness direction of the part to be welded such that a first stirring region formed, by a first probe of a first rotation tool, on a first side in the thickness direction of the part to be welded and a second stirring region formed, by a second probe of a second rotation tool, on a second side in the thickness direction of the part to be welded overlap each other, and
wherein the first probe and the second probe are longer than half of a thickness of the part to be welded, and the first rotation tool and the second rotation tool are disposed in an offset manner so as not to interfere with each other physically.

13. The joint processing method according to claim 1 , wherein:
a longitudinal direction is a direction in which the joint extends, and a width direction is a direction which is orthogonal to the longitudinal direction,
in the friction stir welding step, a second workpiece is arranged on a first side of a first workpiece in the width direction, and a third workpiece is arranged on a second side of the first workpiece in the width direction, the first workpiece includes all of the first region, and each of the second workpiece and the third

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Heavy Ind Ltd

Inventors

• Sato Hiroaki
• Akamatsu Hiroki
• Endo Toshiaki

Classifications

• C22F1/04

  of aluminium or alloys based thereon · CPC title

• B23K20/1275 Primary

  involving metallurgical change · CPC title

• B23K2103/10

  Aluminium or alloys thereof · CPC title

• B21D22/14

  Spinning · CPC title

• B23K20/2336

  both layers being aluminium · CPC title